In larger yachts to which this restriction applies, one or more members of the crew may have as their sole or principal purpose the provision of manual power, being stationed at a device, equipped with one or more handles to which they apply their muscular strength. Drive is taken from the handles through a transmission system to serve all of the sheet-handling and other winches of the yachts. Other crew members will control how sheets or other items are applied to those winches.
The transmission system may include a general speed reduction in the shape of one or more gearboxes and this or these may either be operated by the operator of the handle(s) or by some other crew member. Additionally or alternatively the individual winches may have multiple drive-transmission ratios within them, as between the transmission system of the yacht which is the input to that winch and the drum of that particular winch.
The present invention is concerned with the transmission of drive from a drive device into the transmission system of the yacht.